Microsoft Intune Remote Help is a cloud-based remote support solution that enables IT teams to securely connect to users’ devices and provide real-time assistance. Integrated with Microsoft Entra ID and Microsoft Intune’s role-based access control, it ensures that remote support is both secure and compliant, while giving help desk teams the ability to troubleshoot and resolve issues efficiently across modern endpoints.
Traditionally available as a premium add-on within the Intune Suite, Remote Help is now becoming more accessible. With recent licensing updates, Microsoft is bringing Remote Help into the core offering of Microsoft 365, making it available as part of Microsoft 365 E3 and E5 licences. This shift simplifies licensing and allows organisations to leverage secure, enterprise-grade remote support without requiring additional add-ons.
Requirements
Before we can start using Remote Help, there are some requirements we need to take into account.
Licensing
Both the helper and the user need a license, this can be a Remote Help add-on, Microsoft Intune Suite license, or as of July 1 this can also be a Microsoft 365 E3 or E5 license.
Permissions
Helpers must have one of the following RBAC permissions assigned to their account, before they can use Remote Help.
- Remote Help – View: Allows the helper to view the sharer’s screen without taking control.
- Remote Help – Take full control: Allows the helper to take full control of the sharer’s device.
- Remote Help – Elevation: Allows the helper to interact with the user account control prompts on Windows.
- Remote Help – Unattended: Allows the helper to connect to Android devices without requiring the sharer to accept the connection each time. This capability requires the Android device to be enrolled in Intune as a dedicated device.
- Remote Tasks – Offer remote assistance: Allows the helper to offer remote assistance to users.
- Remote Assistance Connector – Read: Required to allow the user to see if Remote Help is configured for the tenant when starting a session.
I’ve created a Custom Intun role with these permissions.
There are also built-in Intune roles that are available and have these permissions included:
- Help Desk Operator: View screen, take full control, elevation, unattended, Remote Tasks – Offer remote assistance, Remote Assistance Connector – Read
- School Administrator: View screen, take full control, elevation, Remote Tasks – Offer remote assistance, Remote Assistance Connector – Read
Tenant Configuration
Enable Remote Help
Before we can start using Remote Help, we need to enable it at the tenant level; by default, Remote Help is disabled.
Go to the Microsoft Intune admin center | Tenant Administration | Remote Help, select Settings, and then select Configure.
In the Configure screen, there are three options you can configure (as shown below), then choose Save.
- Enable Remote Help: Yes
- Allow Remote Help to unenrolled devices: Not allowed
- Disable Chat: No
Remote Help is now enabled for our tenant. So we are ready to go.
Deploy Remote App as a Win32 app
The next step is to deploy the Remote Help app to all your devices. First, download the Remote Help app installer from the Microsoft website here and create a Win32 app with the Microsoft Win32 Content Prep Tool.
INFORMATION: We are not going into detail on how to create a Win32 app package. You can find the steps on the Microsoft website here.
When you created the Win32 package for Remote Help, let’s add it to the Windows Apps in Microsoft Intune.
Go to Microsoft Intune admin center | Apps | Windows, and choose Create.
In the Select app type screen, choose the following, and choose Select:
- App type: Windows app (Win32)
Add your Remote Help .intunewin package file, and choose OK.
Fill in the App information as shown below, and choose Next.
In the Program settings blade, fill in the following settings, and choose Next.
- Install type: Command line
- Install Command: remotehelpinstaller.exe /quiet acceptTerms=1
- Uninstaller type: Command line
- Uninstall command: remotehelpinstaller.exe /uninstall /quiet acceptTerms=1
INFORMATION:
If you want to disable auto update, use this install command: remotehelpinstaller.exe /quiet acceptTerms=1 enableAutoUpdates=0
The command line options acceptTerms and enableAutoUpdates are always case sensitive.
Fill in some Requirements, and choose Next.
An important one is the Detection Rule, we will create a detection rule based on a file. Fill in the following information and choose OK.
- Rules format: Manually configure detection rule
- Rule type: File
- Path: C:\Program Files\Remote Help
- File or folder: RemoteHelp.exe
- Detection method: String (version)
- Operator: Greater than or equal to
- Value: 10.4.10008.1000
- Associated with a 32-bit app on 64-bit clients: No
INFORMATION:
To get the version of the RemoteHelp.exe, install RemoteHelp manually on a machine and run the following PowerShell command: (Get-Item “$env:ProgramFiles\Remote Help\RemoteHelp.exe”).VersionInfo. From the output, note the FileVersion and use it to specify the Value in the detection rule. I use Windows Sandbox for this.
Once added, choose Next.
You can skip Dependencies and Supersedence by choosing Next. In the Assignment blade, select your device group where you want to deploy the Remote Help app. For now, let’s select All devices as required. Then choose Next.
Review everything and choose Create.
The Remote Help app is now available and assigned to all devices.
How does it work?
Before we can start, let’s check if the Remote Help app is installed on our end-users’ devices.
How does it work?
Microsoft Intune admin center
If you are an admin who wants to remotely control your Microsoft Intune-managed devices, make sure you’ve got Remote Help installed on your own device.
Go to Microsoft Intune admin center | Devices | Windows, and in the Windows devices blade, go to the device you want to remotely control. Choose the three dots on the right-hand side and then choose New remote assistance session.
Then choose Remote Help and Continue.
This will send a notification to the user’s device. As an admin, choose Open Remote Help.
Once the user has opened Remote Help on their device from the notification, the admin will receive the following message. You can now choose what kind of control you want: Take full control or View screen.
Once the user has allowed the control. You’ll see the screen of the end user in Remote Help.
Now, let’s see how this looks on the user’s device when they receive the notification. The user will receive a notification that the administrator wants to assist them. They need to choose Open Remote Help.
The user needs to sign in with their Entra ID account.
The user will see a screen where the admin is asking for control, the user needs to Allow this.
Once this is allowed, the end-user will see the following screen.
Conclusion
Remote Help offers significant added value for organizations that already manage their devices with Microsoft Intune. Its seamless integration with Entra ID, role-based access, and audit logging make it a secure and manageable solution within your existing Microsoft 365 ecosystem. For many support scenarios, especially in a Zero Trust context, it is a logical and efficient choice.
At the same time, there are still limitations compared to more mature tools such as TeamViewer, particularly in terms of cross-platform flexibility, advanced remote control features, and use outside of fully managed environments. It is therefore important to carefully evaluate where Remote Help fits within your support strategy.
However, with the announcement that Remote Help will be included in Microsoft 365 E3 and E5 starting July 1, the barrier to entry is significantly lowered. This makes it particularly appealing for many organizations to activate and explore the solution. Even as a complement to existing tools, Remote Help can play a valuable role in supporting managed devices securely, compliantly, and fully integrated into your Microsoft stack.
